Like the faint notes of a new sonata on the martian winds

Recently on a book design blog I frequent I came across a thread about Robert Heinlein’s novel Stranger in a Strange Land. Basically the thread was lambasting the book as completely horrid and of no redeeming value. Hey, live and let live I say but the book totally fired up my imagination when I read it in college.

Bear in mind this was a blog about book DESIGN, not literary significance. Anyway, the blog got me to thinking about the book and one of the few things I remember vividly about the story. On the planet Mars, where the protagonist (an orphaned human child) is raised as a Martian. On the planet Mars whenever a brilliant piece of poetry, an amazing work of art or an extraordinary new song is created everyone on Mars is aware of it and able to partake in the joy of experiencing it at the same time. For some reason this idea stuck with me all these years. It seemed so beautiful that the Martian race was evolved to such a degree that they had perfect psychic connection with each other all over the planet when it came to creativity.

Whenever I think of my friend Meylo, I think of the Martians. Meylo is a designer and a DJ friend of mine who grew up in South Texas (…the Rio Grande Valley …the Rioplex …da 956 …third coast) and now lives in Austin, TX doing the do. He truly has otherworldly creative powers, but aside from that Meylo has the innate awareness of the coolest music almost immediately after it’s been released and sometimes waaay before it’s released. He’s gotta be Martian.

The whole point of this post is to point you to his pet project MONDAY MORNING MIX. By no means EVERY monday, but every month or so on a Monday Meylo posts a digital mixtape for your listening pleasure.

These mixes are supreme. You’d do well to bop over there and check it out.

Just to convince you I’ve uploaded the 11th (newest) mix for you to sample right here and now!